Call for Ban on Death Penalty Grows at ABA

The American Bar Assn.’s call for a national moratorium on capital punishment, made three years ago this month, once seemed destined for a quiet death. No more.

“There’s growing momentum,” ABA President William Paul said Saturday at the national convention for his 400,000-member group. “The moratorium issue clearly is alive.”

The major catalyst was Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s announcement two weeks ago that no one will be executed in his state until he finds out why more death sentences have been overturned than carried out.

Since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed reinstatement of capital punishment, Illinois has executed 12 people. Since 1987, the state has released 13 from death row after their convictions were overturned.

Nationwide, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 85 death row inmates have been freed since 1973.

Ryan’s decision was key, said Jerome Shestack, a Philadelphia lawyer and former ABA president, who will testify this month before the Pennsylvania Legislature in favor of a death penalty moratorium.

“We are learning that a lot of mistakes are made, and errors cannot easily be rectified after someone’s execution,” he said.

Paul, an Oklahoma City lawyer, emphasized that the ABA does not support or oppose the death penalty, but is interested in ensuring that defendants get adequate legal help and that there are other safeguards.

“We’ve tried to be aggressive, but it ultimately is up to the people of each state,” he said.

Legislatures in 16 of the 38 states with death penalty laws have considered or are now considering a ban on executions while they study whether the punishment must be meted out more fairly. Only Nebraska passed a moratorium, which was vetoed by the governor.

In Congress, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced a bill Friday to address what he called “the growing national crisis in the administration of capital punishment.”

His Innocence Protection Act seeks stronger guarantees of adequate legal help for capital defendants. It also provides for DNA testing of inmates who seek to prove they did not commit the underlying crime for which they were condemned.

President Clinton is considering a request by Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) to suspend federal executions. Meantime, Congress and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno are studying the cases of the 21 people awaiting death for federal crimes.

There has not been a federal execution since 1963, but the number of people put to death by the states is growing, reaching 98 last year, the most since the Supreme Court ruling in 1976.

Nearly 3,600 people await execution. Texas leads with 463 on its death row and also has executed more people than any other state.

Cynthia Orr, a San Antonio defense lawyer, called her state “the fastest assembly line to the death chamber in the nation.”

Bar association leaders say a corner may have been turned.

“The momentum on capital punishment has gained intensity locally, nationally and internationally,” James Coleman Jr., chairman of the ABA’s section on individual rights and responsibilities, said in a new report, “A Gathering Momentum.”

“We have made great progress in refocusing the death penalty debate and shifting momentum toward acceptance of the principles underlying the moratorium resolution . . . eliminating unfairness,” said Coleman, a Dallas lawyer.

In addition to Illinois, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, the number of states that have proposed, or are considering, abolishing capital punishment, imposing a moratorium or scrutinizing their death penalty laws is growing.

The roll, according to the ABA report: Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma and South Dakota.